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LXer Weekly Roundup for 20-Nov-2011

Welcome to this week's collection of big stories from the LXer Newswire. Enjoy!

Sneak Peek: Linux Mint 12: The first release candidate for Linux Mint 12 is out now, and I couldn’t resist doing a sneak peek of it. I’ll do a full review on DLR when the final release comes out. Linux Mint 12, as you may have heard, uses GNOME 3.2 as its desktop environment. But the Linux Mint developers never do anything quite the same as other distros. In this release they’ve added MGSE (Mint GNOME Shell Extensions) that make it possible to use the GNOME 3 desktop in a way similar to previous releases of GNOME.

2 cool reasons to use the K Desktop Environment: To me, the difference between KDE 4 and LXDE and Xfce is like that between a smart phone and a feature phone. But looks aside, I want a desktop that does not get in my way, one that makes it easy to get to stuff I need in a user-friendly manner. In the Stackfolder and the Takeoff Launcher, I think I have found two very cool reasons to embrace KDE 4. Takeoff Launcher is still missing a few pieces, but for me, they are not show-stoppers. Let’s see how these cool features look on a recently reviewed distribution.

Barnes & Noble Exposes Microsoft's Trivial Patents and Strategy Against Android: Barnes & Noble has done the world a tremendous favor, by pulling aside the curtain and revealing Microsoft's patent campaign tactics against Android in lurid detail. It reveals the assertion of "trivial" and "invalid" patents against Barnes & Noble and some shocking details about an "oppressive" license agreement that would have controlled hardware and software design features that Microsoft presented, thus limiting to what degree Barnes & Noble could offer upgrades and improved features to its customers if it had signed it, features it says none of Microsoft's patents cover. Microsoft worked so hard to keep it all secret, and I think you'll see why. It's ugly behind that curtain.

Has Linux dropped off the face of the Earth?: "Has Linux dropped off the face of the Earth?" The answer is obviously no. Linux is still around, stronger than ever, but the desktop OS does seem to be disappearing. Of course this is true of Windows and Mac OS, at least from the average user's perspective. Desktop Linux is strong with those who use it; those who have been using it, but the buzz seems to be gone.

openSuse 12.1 Review: An Elite OS: This is the favorite time of the year, it's like Christmas for a GNU/Linux user. This is the time of the year when most Linux distros release their latest versions. We have already played with Ubuntu 11.10, Fedora 16 and today openSUSE 12.1 arrived. I have been casually using openSUSE 12.1 (RC) for a while and am quite comfortable with it -- a compliment as its coming from a long-time Ubuntu user. If I look at my pattern I have been switching between Ubuntu 11.10, Fedora 16 and openSUSE 12.1 quite a lot recently. My Google + page is full of my experiences with these three OSes.

Saying good-bye to Debian: Being an advocate of Linux Mint, which is a derivative based on Ubuntu, which is a derivative of Debian; I noticed a nasty bug back in July of 2011. Ubuntu 11.04 was released in April of that year and I waited for the bugs to be shaken out of the rug and finally installed it.